Gas mask tips police to grenade, which was inert

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A local costume shop employee shut down a section of downtown San Mateo Monday morning when police pulled him over because he was wearing a gas mask — and found he was carrying an inert grenade, according to San Mateo police.

An officer spotted Gilberto Masias, 29, of San Mateo, driving in the unit block of East Fourth Avenue wearing a gas mask at about 9 a.m., police said. The officer saw what looked like a grenade in his vehicle. He detained Masias and called in the bomb squad, which evacuated a half-block radius.

Bomb squad technicians soon determined that while the grenade was real, it posed no danger.

Masias was cited and released for possession of an inert grenade, police said.

After Monday morning’s incident, San Mateo police asked that the public “be smart” with costume choices this Halloween season.